Lianne Tan was facing Tai Tzu Ying and trying her best to force an upset, but there were times when she could only watch in admiration.

This is the Belgian’s fourth Olympics, and she has seen several opponents in that period, but Tai, she conceded, is different. Tai was the adversary but Lianne could appreciate the artistry of the hunt as they faced off in Group E.

“Sometimes I’m like, ‘oh, wow’,” she says, of facing the shots from the conjuror’s wand. “She’s such a great player. In everybody’s opinion she’s one of the best players we’ve seen in the last decade maybe; her style is very different, her technique is beautiful, and for the audience also it’s so nice to watch her. I hope she does well.

“I’ve played her a few times. This time I was ready. The first time I played her was so hard because nobody else in the world has those shots. But today I did better than in previous matches. She’s an amazing player and I really respect her.”

Tai, silver medallist at the last Olympics, has had a low-key run-up to Paris 2024. After a bright start to the season, with consecutive finals in Malaysia and India and semifinals at the French Open and All England, a knee injury flared up, causing her to skip events after April. She had protective wrapping on both knees, but was non-committal about its condition.

“I don’t feel very different about it,” she said. “The movement was fine, but it can get better. Normally it does get better with each match.

“I think the injury is under control, but the knee is not as good as it could be. I did have a break for several weeks, and it was important. I haven’t particularly set any goals for the Olympics, but my next match will be difficult as it’s against Ratchanok (Intanon).

“I’m not thinking too much about my past performance at the Olympics; during the last month I’ve tried not to put any pressure on myself.”

No Stopping Chen/Jia

Chen Qing Chen’s hyperbolic celebrations on beating Apriyani Rahayu and Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti spoke of the emotions they had carried coming into their second match.

By a quirk of fate, one half the pair that had beaten them in the final of the last Olympics – Rahayu – had run into Chen/Jia in Group A. After a brief wobble at the end of the second game – when Rahayu and Ramadhanti saved two match points – the Chinese world champions duly took their second win in the group with the 21-12 24-22 result. On taking the final point, Chen threw a flurry of punches in the air, the intensity of celebrations worthy of a gold medal-winning moment.

“We are happy to have reversed the result from Tokyo. We were happy to face them again and we wanted to rebound after having fallen in Tokyo,” explained Jia.

The result ensured that Rahayu wouldn’t be able to defend her gold medal, with the Indonesian pair having lost their opening match to Mayu Matsumoto/Wakana Nagahara in the Group of Death.

Two-time world champions Matsumoto/Nagahara however stumbled today, against Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan, and the prospects of these two pairs will depend on their final group matches. The Malaysians, who had given a good account of themselves against Chen/Jia yesterday, were on song against the Japanese after a close first game loss.

“We are happy to win our first match at such a big stage, but there’s one more match, so we want to stay grounded and focus on that,” said Tan.

“We really support each other. That was the most important thing that’s really helped us.”

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